Barbarian

Genre

Fighting

Developer / Publisher

Palace Software (Europe), Epyx (North America)

Released

1987

Media

1 x

Rating

Graphics:

8.0

Sound:

7.0

Gameplay:

9.0

Overall:

8.0

Reviewed by

ndial

Barbarian was released for the Commodore 64 in 1987 by Palace Software, and later ported on numerous 8/16bit other systems in the following months. A totally addictive fighting game (especially when in two-player mode) with top notch graphics and great sound for its era!

Review

STORY / GAMEPLAYThe evil sorcerer Drax has taken Princess Mariana as hostage, but has agreed to let her go free if a warrior can defeat his guardians. And that's where your barbarian comes in. Barbarian (known as Death Sword in the USA) is a one-on-one sword fighting game. Each character (a sword-wielding barbarian) has six life blocks and can survive twelve blows before biting the dust. The action takes place against two backdrops: a forest clearing and a pit of death. Fight against the warriors of Drax and rescue Princess Mariana. The fighters' moves are impressive: they can slice and dice with the sword, chop away, duck, jump, roll, and then there's the lethal chop which takes the opponent's head clean off. The game also features a two-player mode, in which players fight their characters against each other. Not to be confused with "Barbarian", a MelbourneHouse/Psygnosis game from 1988!

GRAPHICS / SOUND The game here features nicely drawn graphics with fine colors considering the limitation of the ZX Spectrum. The graphics detail and color usage are certainly pretty good, but it can't compete whatsoever with CPC or C64 versions. Sprite animation is fluid though and the action is quite fast. The sound is poor though. Although the introductory tune is fine, the in-game SFX are minimal but normally due to the 48k (original) release back then.

ZX Spectrum

CPU: Z80 @ 3.5 MHzMEMORY: 16 KB / 48 KB / 128 KBGRAPHICS: Video output is through an RF modulator and was designed for use with contemporary portable television sets, for a simple colour graphic display. Features a palette of 15 shades: seven colours at two levels of brightness each, plus black. The image resolution is 256x192 with the same colour limitations.SOUND: Early models (48k) had sound output through a beeper on the machine itself. This is capable of producing one channel with 10 octaves. Late models (128k) fetured a three-channel audio via the AY-3-8912 chip, MIDI compatibility